An anchor tenant coming to a high street near you… some time in the next five years?

Westfield have delayed re-submitting their plans for the £1.4billion redevelopment of the town centre and Whitgift Centre because are they are still pursuing an agreement with John Lewis to set up a flagship department store in their proposed supermall.

The developers have this week had a visit from the new MP for the area, Sarah Jones, and also received a “firm letter” from Alison Butler, the council’s deputy leader, urging them to pull their fingers out.

Westfield, together with their “Croydon Partners” Hammerson, have been negotiating around the fate of Croydon town centre for nearly six years, since Gavin Barwell, the then Tory MP for the area and a governor of the land-owners, the Whitgift Foundation, did a behind-the-scenes deal with Boris Johnson to bring the two shopping mall operators together in the biggest land deal in this borough for half a century.

Another Whitgift Centre shop, closed, and with little prospect of a new tenant

The local council has eagerly agreed to the developers’ plans and CPO’d a vast swathe of the town centre for their benefit.

“A historic day,” was the hyperbole of choice for council leader Tony Newman in September 2015 – a date so long ago now that it can no longer be regarded as “recent history”.

Since then, progress has come to a grinding halt as Westfield’s negotiations went on, and on and on…

First, Westfield decided to get even greedier, and wanted to build far more money-spinning housing on top of their shopping centre. Revised plans, including a near-doubling of the number of housing units (“luxury executive apartments”) to 1,000 in five towering blocks along Wellesley Road were unveiled nearly 18 months ago.

The revised plans require revised permission from the council planning committee, but scheduled presentations in April and June have come and gone with no explanation for the delays from Westfield nor from the Whitgift Foundation.

And those revised plans might have to be revised yet again, too, if John Lewis belatedly agree to jump on board and demand a flagship store to their own specifications and requirements.

The Whitgift Centre demolition will make way for 1,000 apartments, eventually

At present, the biggest retail name lined up for Hammersfield’s not-so-supermall is … Marks and Sparks. Which is a bit, well.. pants.

It is becoming increasingly clear that including a John Lewis in the new shopping centre is seen by Westfield as crucial to their scheme’s success. Discussions have been on-going between the parties for more than two years. The department store operator is clearly aware of the developer’s position, and is understood to be using the situation to its commercial advantage: they will want a fully fitted new store and a long-term rent-free deal.

New owners are making plans for the John Lewis at Home site on the Purley Way

And one sign that they might be ready to sign an agreement with Westfield came at last night’s planning committee meeting, with an application for a development on the Purley Way.

The new owners of the Purley Way Retail Park, together with developers Reef Estates, submitted plans at a pre-application stage for a two-phase development around the current site of the John Lewis at Home store. The scheme as presented appears very much as if the landowners are preparing for a time when John Lewis are no longer their tenants. It will see the development of a store next door for German bargain-basement supermarket Aldi – hardly the kind of neighbours that the epitome of the middle-class retail wet dreams would usually expect.

There was another clue yesterday in a series of tweets from new MP Jones after she had had her meeting with Westfield.

“I had a constructive meeting to press Westfield on progress,” Jones said.

“I am frustrated, as are my constituents, and want to see progress. Although plans are at an advanced stage, negotiations are on-going with retailers. I’m hopeful for movement before the summer.” This tweet is dated July 20…

Boris Johnson presided over the Tory-backed Croydon “wedding” between Hammerson and Westfield in 2012

Originally due to open in 2017, the redevelopment now won’t be fully operational possibly until 2022 – a full decade on from its launch. Which sort of suggests that Westfield has already, very much, “done a Bradford” to Croydon.

The Labour-run council is having to re-position itself over Hammersfield, ahead of next May’s local elections.

Instead of opting for a more objective, arm’s-length relationships with the developers when they were elected in 2014, Newman, Butler and their Town Hall clique warmly embraced the Tory supermall scheme, buying in to the notion of a retail Nirvana.

Croydon Tories are shamelessly trying to exploit this, even those who worked in Barwell’s constituency office when the MP for the Whitgift Foundation was carving up the town centre for the sake of the landowners and developers.

Which one’s the fake? Sara Bashford (left) worked for Barwell when he was bringing Westfield to Croydon

In Croydon, meanwhile, Sara Bashford, Barwell’s former constituency office worker, has been trying to take the high moral ground, appearing to take the side of residents over a development blight which she and her boss helped to instigate.

As the deputy leader of the Conservatives at the Town Hall, Bashford dissembled, “What I know is that residents are seeing the decline of the shopping offer in our town centre and want the works to start so they can see something positive happening. They are fed up with start dates that aren’t met and now want certainty over the future.” Given that her former boss used to have Westfield’s John Burton on speed dial, you’d think Bashford might have given him a call for old time’s sake.

The council, meanwhile, is taking the line that the delays are all caused by the developers (which they mostly are, despite the struggling, under-staffed planning department) and that they’ve “done everything it needs to”.

“A date for the planning meeting will be set once the Partnership is ready to progress,” the council said, taking its line from Samuel Beckett.

Retailers in the Whitgift Centre currently have leases which straddle the 2017-2018 Christmas and sales season. After which, demolition works are expected to begin, with the building work likely to take at least three years.

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About insidecroydon

News, views and analysis about the people of Croydon, their lives and political times in the diverse and most-populated borough in London.
Based in Croydon and edited by Steven Downes. To contact us, please email inside.croydon@btinternet.com

As Newman and Negrini have long painted themselves into a corner on this project, I can’t wait to hear their comments when it all goes tits up and Whitgift is left to wither (even more) on the vine. It is a shame they couldn’t have engaged with other potential developers before, but that would have required some effort on their part rather than fawning over Westfield.

It may well be the developers that are delaying, however they realise that internet shopping is taking customers away from the shops and I guess all the violence in Croydon isn’t doing much to help. However as private developers they need to be able to extract the maximum return from a less profitable shopping base. Additionally, businesses in the town need to be given some real incentives to invest, Is this happening, maybe it is, but not evident to me? That said whilst Westfield is being delayed the whole town centre needs a total overhaul – from Katherine St to West Croydon. Proposing development around Queens Gardens whilst the rest of Croydon remains a cesspit is scandalous. I fail to see how the capability of the present Council can deliver what is required for the town.

Westfield clearly have to make sure that this development makes very good commercial sense for themselves. This is why I support their plans to increase the amount of homes. This creates more profits and indeed more customers for the new shopping centre.
These are precarious times, but as Ive seen it Westfield are looking to increase the size to a third level of shops, so I would suggest they are very confident they can fill them.
All I care about is that this project gets off the ground as soon as possible. Croydon desperately needs this and there is no doubt it would be a catalyst to other developments in the area.
The option of leaving the Whitgift Centre is too horrible to contemplate. As much as it may hurt some people, Croydon Council need to bend over backwards to get this going.

I still dont understand why a “commercial” enterprise needs to CPO (a near Communist collectivisation measure if there ever was one) anyone else’s land to redevellop the Whitgift centre. Particularly since they plan to split it up into pieces. In the meantime the Whifgift continues to fall to pieces.

George’s Walk is looking classier these days with its new roof. There’s a reason these schemes dont work – theyre anti-competative.

Also I dont think buying online will ever fully replace retail outlets. After you’ve driven to Factory Lane to pick up what Royal Mail didnt deliver … You may as well have gone to a shop. & There’s little emotional dimension to a lot of online shopping.

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News, views and analysis about the people of Croydon, their lives and political times in the diverse and most-populated borough in London.
Based in Croydon and edited by Steven Downes. To contact us, please email inside.croydon@btinternet.com